The Mass. Ave. Coalition’s second annual festival will make its return on Sunday, Sept. 17, from 1 to 4 p.m., rain or shine, to Chester Square on both sides of Massachusetts Avenue between Tremont Street and Shawmut Avenue.
The free, self-described “festival like no other,” is again made possible by a collaborative effort among the four neighborhood associations comprising the coalition – Chester Square Neighbors (CSN), the Claremont Neighborhood Association, the St. Botolph Neighborhood Association, and the Worcester Square Neighborhood Association.
This year’s musical entertainment will be provided by Ron Reid, a Berklee College of Music professor, leading a group of his students in a steel-drum ensemble, while two carriage ways will be open for “street play” for the event this year (as opposed to only one last year).
The festival will also include free food for guests, including pizza from three neighborhood pizzerias, as well as fruit and popcorn. The Boston Police ice cream truck will also distribute complimentary frozen treats at the event, while the Boston Water and Sewer Commission water truck is also scheduled to make an appearance there. Other event offerings will include a raffle, with items donated by area businesses, and free pedicab rides for attendees. An area offering simple board games for children, such as Connect Four and checkers, along with arts and crafts, will also be open during the festival.
Sponsors for this year’s event include Boston Medical Center Health System and Northeastern University. (Signs posted at popular attractions around the festival will also be adorned with ‘QR’ codes to allow guests to donate to the Mass. Ave. Coalition’s festival efforts.)
Moreover, Naoise McDonnell, of the Boston Planning & Development Agency’s public engagement team, and Talia Matarazzo, assistant to BPDA Director James Arthur Jemison, will be on hand at the festival, disseminating information on projects in the Massachusetts Avenue corridor. They will also both be soliciting input for Boston’s Design Vision, which, according to the city, “seeks to understand how buildings and outdoor spaces can better support Bostonians’ sense of belonging and identity citywide.”
The inaugural Mass. Ave. Coalition Festival, which took place on Sunday, Sept. 18, of last year, reportedly drew between 150 and 200 guests.